“A unique new type of dinosaur discovered by paleontologists in Japan”

“A unique new type of dinosaur discovered by paleontologists in Japan”

29.02.2016

During excavations on the territory of the Japanese cities of Katsuyama, scientists found a dinosaur that, as shown by a study of the remains, belongs to a previously unknown species. This is the seventh species of ancient dinosaurs discovered in Japan.

photo: morguefile.com

The dinosaur got the name Fukuivenator paradoxus, which can be translated as “paradoxical hunter from Fukui”. Paradoxical in this view, scientists have found an unusual combination of traits of the ancient dinosaurs and later animals, reports The Japan Times.

Apparently, the dinosaur discovered lived in a time when some theropods gradually began to evolve into modern birds. Similar transformations were themselves Fukuivenator paradoxus study showed that they were covered with feathers but the ancestors of birds, in all likelihood, they are not.

Lived 120 million years ago Fukuivenator paradoxus reached about two and a half meters in length, but weighed only about 25 pounds. One of the peculiarities of this species was bifurcated cervical vertebrae. His scapula and femur similar to those possessed by the ancestors of modern birds, hearing the shape of a bird.

Although for the most part tetrapody, including tyrannosaurs were predators, Fukuivenator paradoxus, judging by his long neck, could be indiscriminate, admit the researchers.

Scientists have only discovered about 160 fragments of the skeleton of the dinosaur, and about 70% of his body was in good condition.

Recently another interesting paleontological discovery was made by Russian specialists. In the Orenburg region, they discovered a marine lizard with five toes lived 65 million years ago in the late Cretaceous period.